Canyons & Fireworks

I dreamt of a beach unlike any we have in the South. This is my attempt to capture what I saw.                                           ... Juniper Jade woke up feeling drained, used, and a little afraid. Not the fear of horror films or roller-coasters, the fear that gripps the soul and whispers, "Nothing is ever going to change for the better." Pain with no gain. The long drawn-out sagas without resolution. Hopes deferred,  indefinitely... Like a cold dark winter void of the purity of a fresh snowfall. Constantly overcast without the release of refreshment, the days are only dreary and accompanied by a wind that cuts to the bone and wips over the barroness of the land. The subtle dread of tomorrow against a drab landscape evokes melancholy but not desperation, causing passions to settle into the monotonous. Past delights become tedious and sadness fades to numbness. Just ...

Who can believe it's 2024 when 1999 feels like ten years ago?!?! I remember watching the show 20/20 and mistakenly thinking the title was a reference to the year 2020. My adolescent math skills delivered a fright. I was going to be O-L-D once the milestone year arrived.  It's now four years later and. . .Yikes! My thirteen year old self thinks I am ancient. Fortunately, I have a different perspective now.  In the summer of 2020, a dear friend gave me five blank journals. She felt the Lord prompted her to share with me, "It's time to write." Little did she know, I, too, had heard the call.  My first childhood dream was to be a writer. Like Josephine March of Little Women, I was going to defy the odds and cultural limitations for my goals. That was until I shared my starry-eyed ambition with my Gramma.  The loving mother of five and Gramma to thirteen was my confidante. She was not highly educated and usually encouraged me with warmth and simplicity.  Gramma, in ...

Punxsutawney Phil seems to have rightly predicted an early spring, at least here in North Carolina.  My Pennsylvania residing kin were less fortunate. Last weekend a late snow befell them.  Growing up, my mother loved the movie, Ground Hog Day , well, really all Bill Murry humor. The actor's iconic sarcasm classically landed lines like, "This is one time where television really fails to capture the true excitement of a large squirrel predicting the weather." My mother's delight, my upbringing's proximity to the town of Punxsutawney, and the fact that the main female character shared my name (a rarity) might be some of the reasons the movie was a family staple. If you have never seen it, you should.  We all know the silly tradition of the beaver, but the movie is about a cynical reporter, also named Phil, who got stuck repeating the day over and over again, much like a reoccurring nightmare.  Phil had fun with the the cycle, tried to escape it, and finally decided ...

Growing up, my family had an outdoor trampoline. Those fifteen feet of fabric stretched between that steel frame brought all four of us siblings together. My older and much larger, brother, liked to send us younger siblings flying in the air with what he called a "power jump." I can still hear my sister's giggles and see her blonde hair floating in the air after each bounce. Soaring and leaping was almost like therapy for my little brother as he would need extra time if his day had been particularly exacting. We siblings have fourteen years between us and are very different but we all have found memories of jumping together. Recently, my little family of three visited some friends that moved an hour away. These friends have taken on some big goals with the opening of their coffee shop and starting a home church. They also got their daughter a long awaited horse, and the wife had a transplant last year! As you can see, they have had a lot going on in their lives. This week...